We had the unique pleasure of having I-SKY express his dedication to music as he finds himself ruminating on the significance it holds for him. He speaks with such poise, demonstrating a sense of receptiveness. He has stepped into the world and is determined to apprehend reality, waves of uncertainty, and all of life’s intricacies. Existence necessitates navigation. Existence prompts desire. The desire to be seen, heard, and understood, grasping this ultimate motif within existence.
I-SKY seeks to fulfill this human desire in the time he spends creating with or for a fellow artist. He succeeds in affirming another unspoken thought, ostensibly alongside layers of emotion, all in all securing the intent of what they’re putting out into the world. They are seen, heard, and understood; made possible by the support garnered from a meaningful creative partnership born out of respect towards each other’s artistry.
What is then seamlessly translated into the song, is I-SKY challenging local and upcoming artists to be their best. He enjoys putting people in new situations where they are meant to shift in perception. He says, “There’s no limit to creation, people should experiment, It depends on what your sole purpose is in making music or being in the industry. I like to push boundaries, bend and mash up genres, if it sounds good to me, then that’s enough for me.”
In the spirit of Kita Jaga Kita, I-SKY is still adjusting to the new normal. In a time when we understand so little, he manages to slow things down to capture the essence of time with his new album, “WAKTU”. Although the album was put on hold for almost 2 years, yet it being released now seems fitting to the limbo we’re all in. WAKTU captures his worldview perfectly; “There is no limit to creation”, he shares with MULA. Time is precious, it’s only important to focus on what you can focus on, and I-SKY proved it spot on.
On Persona and Identity
“I like creating personas for myself.”
On Refining Your Skills
“This CMCO hasn’t been enough. The momentum isn’t strong and it is uninspiring to write things while there’s so much going on in the world. I started using my time to polish up my skills instead of starting something new. The whole album is a summary of how I started making music from the start to how I am now.”
On Keeping The Sketchbook Close
“I started with the vault. It started out with my sketchbook. It’s filled with beats, ideas, and jam sessions, and then slowly over time, I developed it further. I’m just going to put it out in a way that I understand.”
On Being A Producer
“If it’s working for people, it’ll be a different mindset. That’s when I channel them into my workflow. I understand and cater to what they want or need. But when I work with them, it’s a mutual term and agreement. A collaborative vibe that we get. An idea that comes to the mind easily.”
On His New Album
“My goal was to put everyone that I’ve known in there. The people on the album are the people who have been here from the start of my journey and also in between. Overall it’s been 10 years.”
On The Hardest Thing
“One of the hardest things for me to do was try to be honest with my music without external influence. When you make art or when you’re being creative, you’re always inspired by other forms of art or other products that ignite your inspiration – and/or something that is trendy. It took a while to accept that okay…. this is me. I want to do something like this. Out of everything, there’s no validation in that. Only you know the answer to that. It’s hard to put a sure belief that this is me, rather than working on a song or working with people. You’re sometimes against you.”
On Releasing WAKTU
“This whole album was me putting my friends in challenging situations. I’ve always liked to put people in situations they’re not comfortable with, I always wanna make them try something different and new – this album is me making them do that and not the conventional perspective of the individual”
On Working With Friends
“If it’s working for money, working with friends is not very ideal as it gets very business-sy so the dynamic changes. However, if it’s working on something you believe in and working with friends that have the same vision, it’s ideal”
On His Late Dad As An Inspiration for The Song Suara Kamar
A personal connection means so much more than any other kind of connection it doesn’t matter where or when. I-SKY tells us, “I met Akid Amir, a Singaporean full-time barber who makes music on the side. I got to know him from a music producer from Singapore called Fauxe. He came over to my house and I asked him how much would it cost to cut my hair. He just said, let’s just jam and that’s how it started.”
“My late dad used to sing. He used to sound like Broery Marantika. it’s embedded inside of me, bringing me to a place where I’m connected to my dad’s voice jamming with others. It hits home, you know? So when I was working on this song, it was getting this home feeling from someone I don’t know and had met for the first time. So I took that emotion and just tried to box everything up. I took it to the vault. I have a story to tell here.”
On Naming It Waktu
“If it wasn’t for time, I wouldn’t be able to box everything up into this project. I was Dj-ing at a full-time job and I was feeling very lost in time. You’ve got to keep up with trends, and you’ve got to keep up entirely. I named it that because I didn’t want to chase masa, masa is a shorter period. Waktu is used to describe longer periods of time.”
On What’s Next
“The whole idea of I-SKY is not to expect anything because it is unexpected. I wanna build I-SKY as a character that you wouldn’t be able to tell what’s next. It could be really random, or it could be a club track or a really emotional track and a plethora of things. I like being unpredictable.”